Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Flatland United!

Interesting project here, not sure who runs this site, just popped up on my twitter feed, check the link out, FU are looking for a board of directors. www.flatlandunited.com

"It is time! There is too much power within the vocal minority seeding and propagating discontent within the Flatland BMX world. This stems from a few key issues which, hopefully, we will address and help bring a solution to the forefront! Flatland suffers from a global disconnection of united events and a unified rider ranking system. This leads directly into the other issues of judge and event questioning, funding and event sponsorship value problems and, the most important is the lack of unified and ongoing funding for events and riders. Borrowing elements from the independent and successful Surfing world (which suffered from similar issues), we will try to roll in key aspects to create a flourishing and united community that will allow riders to compete and develop in high quality events around the world with a quantifiable ranking that demonstrate value to event sponsors, rider sponsors, and partnerships!

14 comments:

"unified ranking system" are we talking about picking up points at any event throughout the year, or only certain events. The am flat circuit already has a ranking, the KOG has a ranking, and of course the World circuit has one in place, what are we saying here?

and how is this going to "evolve" flatland? ? .... sorry to say this - but consistency and contests arent exactly "evolving" flatland the same way as maybe a video contest - something like groundtactics?... put up cash for a hardest trick(s) contest...tht might work...the way i see it...the contests now seem to be more about showing off to lay people - those people dont understand any of the technical aspect of flatland - they'll just clap at any kind of a spin - theyre one step above the guy who yells - "Show me a BACKFLIP!"

the idea of having "high quality events worldwide" is pretty cool, but without more specifics about HOW, and even what exactly, I can't get overly excited quite yet. Seems like it would take a lot of people, time, and most importantly, money to succeed. I'm staying tuned tho. The concept is interesting to me.

I hear your comments Tdot, in an ideal world, guys like Martti Kuoppa, Simon O'Brien would be earning cash off there videos. That would evolve the sport. As Jim said this an interesting effort to make flatland more professional, which it does need in the contest sense.But its question who's going to front the cash? Only Colony supported the Jomopro for example.

just from the language these guys are using on the website and their twitter - i get the feeling that these guys arent flatlanders themselves? they seem to be more like businessmen (not a compliment) thats trying to make an investment / profit...

It was attempted a few years ago to make a flatland committee, but no one could agree on anything. It was over before it began. It will be interesting to see this second attempt.

The main problem, even if everything else was coordinated, is the money. The fact of the matter is, the flatland industry doesn't sell much product. Which means no cash flow. If Terry wins JomoPro, Odyssey isn't going to sell 5,000 more frames. No cash flow means nothing significant can happen unless its all on a volunteer basis. Volunteer basis means everyone comes to the table with their own separate agenda/priorites/ideas....

In my opinion traditional contests are not the way of the future for pro flatland, although it's all we have at the moment.

However, this endeavor may have a more positive impact for AM riders. AM riders are the main consumers of flatland. They are most important element in keeping this flatland thing going. Also, cash is not as much of an issue when coordinating an AM event.

Sup. I just wanted to add to that LOGO!! if you put that guy doing the HITCH HIKER on the D going the same way it would look better and u would get the "F" for flatland... its like on going roll!!!... well thats just an opinion... big ups from LA!